Sharad Pawar finally ended the suspense over whether he will contest in this month's biennial elections of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA).
Come October 18, the high-profile politician will make his comeback into Indian cricket administration via the MCA.u00a0
ADVERTISEMENT
Pawar, the former chief of the International Cricket Council and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was yesterday chosen as the presidential candidate by the Bal Mahadalkkar group which enjoys a majority support in the MCA.
Pawar, who headed the MCA from 2000 to 2008, kept everyone guessing regarding his decision to come back to the Association. With the BCCI elections completed on September 29, Pawar can force his way into the Indian board.
As of now, there is no opposition for Pawar for the president’s post, but it will be interesting to see whether Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who recently filed his nomination from Mazgaon CC, decides to give the NCP boss stiff opposition.
Pawar has reportedly told his aides in the Association that he wants to complete a few more infrastructure projects with the MCA. However, his supporters maintain that Pawar is not eyeing a big post in the BCCI.
With Pawar as the presidential candidate, Ravi Savant, the current MCA chief, will contest for an office-bearer post. Savant has earlier served as the Treasurer and Vice-president of the Association.
Current Joint Secretaries Nitin Dalal and Dr PV Shetty, along with Vinod Deshpande (vice-president) and Ashish Shelar (BJP chief, Mumbai) will contest to be office-bearers.
For the 11-member managing committee, Deepak Patil, Shrikant Tigdi, Arvind Kadam, Rajan Phaterphekar, Ganesh Iyer, Sanjay Patil, Ramesh Vazge, Deepak Murkar, Shirish Mallapurkar, Armaan Malik and Naveen Shetty will contest from the Mahadalkkar group.u00a0